Grassroots Strength Training - Bodybuilding, Power Lifting, Etc.

Its not nearly as quick as a recovery as I was expecting.  Everyone was telling me "oh its no big deal, you'll be back to normal in less than a week".  I'm 1 week into recovery and there is no way any serious physical exercise is happening for at least a week.  I could isolate some arm stuff, but no legs, minimal core, no deadifting, etc.  Sitting is still uncomfortable due to swelling downstairs, I walk funny, and I'm wearing loose joggers to work because putting on real pants is very uncomfortable.  Even sitting down into my sim rig is a very tricky several minute ordeal.

In my opinion, wait until the stitches are gone before you even try to lift anything heavier than about 25 pounds.. 

Procedure will be on a Wednesday. My expectations are...

I figure I'm lounging through the weekend.

Next full week at work, I plan to lift nothing heavier than a pint. I will point and direct others to lift or to bend down to work under and behind tanks.

2nd full week, probably bending down to attach hoses to tanks, but no actual lifting.

3rd week, lifting 55lbs sacks of grain and 65lbs, 5 gallon kegs. Other people will have to move 15.5gal kegs for me.

4th week back to picking up kegs. Back to climbing. Upper body lifting. Maybe going through the motions on squats.

Got the new Rogue rack this weekend and bolted in place! 

Wife and I can lift at the same time without getting in each other's way.

In reply to Beer Baron :

Great setup. One of my future state goals is to rebuild the garage so I can have a home exercise area again.

 

I managed to lock out a deadlift of 305 pounds right before my left hand opened up and I dropped the bar.
That's the most I've done post-breaks yet!

Three lift total sitting at 730 pounds, but it's been a while since I maxxed in bench and squat. I'll have to do that soon.

Barbell Back Squat 250lbs
Barbell Bench Press 225lbs
Barbell Deadlift 305lbs

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

What kind of grip are you using? Double overhand? Mixed? Hook?

In reply to Beer Baron :

Double overhand on reps, mixed grip for max. I haven't been able to hook grip, my hands are small and I can't get my thumb tucked. 

I'm trying not to use straps until I just can't lift it at all. Gotta get my grip strength back.

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

So this happened with a mixed grip? Dang...

I've got big hands and I don't like hook grip. Never had grip issues with mixed grip though.

Well done on 305, though!

Here is where I am right now. Next up: trying to beat my post-injury bench press PR.

Current 1k progress: 825 lbs.

Since it was max out week, I went ahead and beat my post-injury bench press PR by a bit and also upped my overhead barbell press. All of these are one rep maximums.

I expect gains to start slowing down a bit now.

Setting new PR's this week and next. Want to accomplish some goals before getting snipped keeps me from lifting for a month.

Lifted 4 plates for the first time today!

Overhead Press: 160 lbs.

Deadlift: 405 lbs.

Next week will be squat and bench. I'm expecting 405 and 275.

   I took some time off and let my joints recover a bit. My youngest kid (15) has been bitten by the weight lifting bug. We ran through their 1rm on the core lifts and I built a 5/3/1 BBB program template around them. We just started week two of cycle two and the progress both in both physique and strength has been staggering; at 5'8" and 123 lbs the kid benched 120 x 1, squatted 215 x 1 and deadlifted 260 x 1. Today 205 was deadlifted for 15 clean reps so, it's safe to say that 1rm has gone up a bit. Lol

   I'm back on my "Vengeance" program:

 Day 1= legs, chest, shoulders, triceps

Day 2= legs, back, biceps

Day 3= transverse plane/core, boxing, cardio

Day 4= KB Rite of Passage, ACFT

Day 5= transverse plane/core, boxing, cardio

Day 6= rest

Day 7= rest or start program again, depending on how I feel.

While lifting with my kid I've been able to squat again. It's like I've stumbled upon the fountain of youth!

Got my deadlift up to 405 just last week! Hoping this week to see how many I can pull at 225 to keep pushing my numbers up.

I'm being lazy on legs currently; I can still do 225x8 on squat but I've been focused far more on machine leg press for the heavy stuff (I max that out at ~450 or so). I've been doing hack quats and/or hamstring curls, and bulgarian split sqats before a final burn-out of bodyweight squats to failure, but I feel like my leg routine isn't very good. Any ideas for other exercises I should do?

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

That's more squat variations than I do. Right now, I just do back squats and pistol squats.

I round out my exercise with running and climbing rather than lifting. For strength, I kind of figure that a focus on the Big Four and then rock climbing covers most of my bases. I only worry about getting one heavy day and one light day each week on each major group.

My leg days are:

1) squats (4-5 sets)

2) lunges or Bulgarian splits (2-3 sets)

3) barbell hip thrusts (2-3 sets)

4) Leg extensions (2-3 sets)

I mix up the sets, reps, weights, barbell vs dumbbell, and single leg vs both legs to keep it fresh and fit whatever equipment is available in the gym at the time.

I'm finally fully recovered from a back injury in December. Gonna have to get on this train with you all. I never stopped exercising during the injury, just re-focused efforts on getting my core strength back up and letting that muscle heal. Lots of planks, bird dogs, single leg bridges, supermans, bananas, side planks, and wipers. Quit running as well to reduce impact, lots of elliptical and bike use to keep my cardio up, and slowly worked back into calisthenics and light lifting with machines. 

Got back into free weights last week on top of my core exercises and feeling great. I've limited my running to utilizing the inside grass portion of the local 400m track once a week and focusing on short sprints. 

For the next six weeks this is what my lifting schedule looks like:

Monday: Chest and Tris

• 10 min warm up on elliptical
• Flat Bench: 10-8-5-5-3
• Tri Cable Pull Downs 10-10-10
• Tri Overhead Dumbbell Extension 10-10-10
• Cable Flys: 12-12-12
• Dumbbell Incline: 10-10-10
• Skull Crushers: 10-10-10
• Dips: 15-15-15
• Decline Push-ups: 25-25-25
• Afternoon Bike Ride

Tuesday: 

• Warm-up: 
  • 10 Pull-ups
  • 15 Air Squats
  • 20 Push-ups
• Execution:
  • 25 pull-ups
  • 50 kettle bell snatches
  • 50 kettle bell bent leg dead lifts
  • 50 kettle bell sumo squats
  • 50 push ups
  • 50 kettle bell swings
  • 50 hang cleans w/ just a bar
  • 25 pull ups
  • 100m sprints - 10x
  • Core Exercises/Cool down

Wednesday Legs and Shoulders:

• Squats: 10-8-5-5-3
• Front Overhead Shoulder Press: 10-8-5-5-3
• Leg Extensions: 10-10-10
• Front Shoulder Raises: 10-10-10
• Leg Press: 10-10-10
• Side Shoulder Raises: 10-10-10
• Hamstring Curls: 10-10-10
• Arnold Raises: 10-10-10
• Calf Raises: 10-10-10
• Afternoon bike ride

Thursday: 

• Warm-up: 
  • 10 Pull-ups
  • 15 Air Squats
  • 20 Push-ups
• Execution:
  • 25 pull-ups
  • 50 kettle bell snatches
  • 50 kettle bell bent leg dead lifts
  • 50 kettle bell sumo squats
  • 50 push ups
  • 50 kettle bell swings
  • 50 hang cleans w/ just a bar
  • 25 pull ups
  • 100m sprints - 10x
  • Core Exercises/Cool down

Friday Back and Bis:

• Pull-ups: 15-12-10-10-8
• Hammer Curls: 10-10-10
• Cable Rows: 12-12-12
• Cross body curls: 10-10-10
• Lat Pull Downs: 12-12-12
• Preacher Curls: 10-10-10
• Bent Over Rows: 10-10-10
• Strip set curls: 5x reps each starting at 50lbs going down to 5
• Afternoon bike ride

Saturday: 

A run and a bike ride

Hit my 4-plates squat!

For grins, we decided to actually weigh the plates to get an accurate number, and it looks like the actual weight for the squat and deadlift was about 412 lbs.

Missed my 275 bench, but I really wanted to get the squat, and that took up a bunch of energy.

That puts my PR's at:

Squat - 412
Bench - 270
Deadlift - 412
Overhead Press - 160

Now, no lifting for several weeks...

I forgot to check in, but these numbers are from the end of feb:

I havent really gotten back in the groove with deadlifts for some reason.  Hopefully I'll figure out whats up and improve that.  Usually I wouldn't blink with 315 but I've had troubles with it lately.

Of course I worked out a total of like 3 days in Feb so I shouldn't expect much.  Between vasectomy recovery and travel I was a lazy bastard.  I should actually be able to work out all of March, so hopefully I see some progress.

Did legs last night. Thinking of going to a 3/3 split similar to DirtyBird222 for more cardio because that's far better for long-term heart health, but I plan to restart martial arts and other fighting styles for cardio soon so I'll play it by ear.

Final squats were a little hard, but I had a full day of schooling and last week I could barely exercise due to school, so I'm not shocked. Hoping to make a better system for legs soon and I'd love input, this list here is basically me screwing around.

Barbell Squat: 135x5, 185x5, 225x5.

Superset Leg press machine with Calf raises: 360x8, 12 calf raises. 410x8, 12 calf raises. 450x8, 12 calf raises.

Box jumps: 10 jumps at 10 inches, then 10 jumps at 16 inches.

Leg Curls: 150x12, 170x12, 180x12

Bodyweight lunges, walking: 20, 20, 20.

Cable Hip Abduction: 7.5lbs x10, 12.5lbsx10, 12.5lbsx10.

I had hoped to do at least 2 more exercises- one leg and one core based- but I ran out of time. 

Lightly tweaked my shoulder working on a car, and had to drop weight in many exercises. 

ProDarwin said:

Its not nearly as quick as a recovery as I was expecting.  Everyone was telling me "oh its no big deal, you'll be back to normal in less than a week".  I'm 1 week into recovery and there is no way any serious physical exercise is happening for at least a week.  I could isolate some arm stuff, but no legs, minimal core, no deadifting, etc.  Sitting is still uncomfortable due to swelling downstairs, I walk funny, and I'm wearing loose joggers to work because putting on real pants is very uncomfortable.  Even sitting down into my sim rig is a very tricky several minute ordeal.

I think I'm doing better than the average guy. Didn't have the swelling or serious pain others have reported. More being careful and feeling extra sensitive rather than actual pain. Sitting hasn't been a problem. Finding a comfortable position sleeping has been (normally a side sleeper).

At day 5 now and not doing too bad. Certainly not "back to normal" yet. I went into work for a couple hours. Walked around on concrete, squatted, kneeled, worked a floor squeegee. Probably lifted 10-15lbs of stuff.

Not being able to exercise makes me antsy. Can do a bit of easy stretching. I'm waiting another week to actually exercise properly, probably just isolated upper body to start, or maybe some bodyweight or bar-only lower body stuff to go through the motions.

Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:

Lightly tweaked my shoulder working on a car, and had to drop weight in many exercises. 

I'm sorry to hear this!  If it helps, I can share the PT exercises I'm doing right now to rehab my shoulder.  The good news is that shoulders seem to recover better by working them than resting completely (warning: broad generalization, not a doctor, etc.)

Finally benching 225 for reps again. I probably could have started with it a few weeks ago but I lift without a spotter so I wanted to make absolutely sure I was strong enough to safely do it. Did 3 sets, 225 for 7-8 reps each set. Feels great to hit that goal!

In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :

I'm interested, please do! Also, glad to hear my plan of continuing to work the shoulder was on the mark. It seemed to stiffen up and be worse after not moving it- like when I first wake up in the morning.